Office Communicator forms the first part of Outsourcery’s Unified Communications solutions and enables businesses to streamline their communications – allowing staff to communicate more effectively, thereby saving time and travel costs. Being able to offer these benefits at lower costs via a hosted exchange model will mean the channel will open up to a new small and medium-sized business (SME) market and increase Average Revenue per User (ARPU).
Some of the key features of Office Communicator are the presence functionality and Live Meeting. Presence works with an Outlook calendar, enabling staff to see if colleagues are in a meeting and relays that information to the person trying to contact them. PCs are also monitored, enabling managers to check on the availability of staff and check if a keyboard or mouse is being used. These capabilities mean that businesses are always communicating in the most productive way.
Live Meeting provides the ability for users to take part in a web conference. These can be scheduled via Outlook using the ‘Schedule a Live Meeting’ button. Web conferencing supports a rich mix of data collaboration such as instant messaging, audio, video, slide presentations and application sharing on a single platform accessed from a PC, ultimately providing businesses with a tool for effective communication across their organisation.
Mark Seemann, Product Strategy & Development Director at Outsourcery, said: “With large numbers of employees now working away from the office, businesses are finding that they need more effective ways to stay in touch with their colleagues and clients. Office Communicator lets businesses of any size communicate and collaborate more efficiently.
“Being able to connect with your colleagues whenever and wherever they are will mean an increase in productivity company-wide.”
Users with a Windows Mobile device will also be able to download the active sync software allowing them to obtain access to Office Communicator instant messaging and presence information.
The Office Communicator platform will be hosted within Outsourcery’s secure state-of the-art data centres and will be provided for a small, predictable monthly fee. As it is offered as a hosted solution, there is no need to worry about the ongoing costs and time associated with managing and maintaining expensive servers and software licenses. Furthermore, those who are existing Microsoft Outlook users can integrate Office Communicator into their current service for added value and productivity.